Slippin' Into Darkness
by larutanrepus
Summary: A killer from Tony's past returns and tears up old wounds. The story jumps between the case Tony had in Philadelphia 1998 and present time at NCIS. hurt!tony. Rated M just in case. Please read the first chapter and make up your mind since my summary is a bit cryptic. Please read, enjoy and review!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I don't own anything.

I know that Tony wasn't a detective in Philly but there's always much focus on Baltimore so let's pretend or call it AU. Enjoy :)

* * *

Philadelphia 1998

The smell struck his face as he walked into the room. The victim was tied to a chair in the middle of the room and there were blood and bruises all over the body. A single light-bulb hung from the ceiling providing the room with only a dim light. It was a typical basement with no windows and one another rat lurking in a corner. Detectives Adrian Quinn and Anthony DiNozzo had seen this kind of scene before, a couple of murders similar to this had occurred over the past six months. Those who had been killed had been cops. They had been working hard trying to find this bastard which had meant too little sleep and too much frustration.

It was late and Tony had no time for pleasantries, he wanted to get out of here as soon as he could.

"What do we have here?" Tony asked no one in particular and squatted down next to the dead man in the chair. A woman that Tony had failed to notice earlier as they walked in to the room started reading from a notebook:

"Unidentified male, approximately in his mid-fifties, severe contusions all over the body as far as we can see. It looks like he's sustained the same torment as the previous victims of this particular killer." She stopped and looked up and explained that they didn't have much at this time.

Tony held up his hand signaling to the coroner to enter. They wouldn't know everything for sure until they had gotten the full autopsy report but Tony was certain they were dealing with the same killer and same M.O. The man's face was swollen and covered in blood and it was hard to make out any of the man's features. The young detective's stomach turned a little and a strange feeling grew larger inside of him. He thought the person sitting in the chair looked familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He noticed that Quinn was watching him with a slightly bewildered look on his face.

"What clue did he leave to mock us with this time?" Tony sounded a bit agitated as he said it.

"Well…Except for the obvious writing in blood all over the wall over here, it seems like the victim's stomach has been cut open and then sowed back together and we don't know if that has any meaning but he haven't done that to any of the previous victims." Quinn said and handed over the camera he was holding to Tony so he could take pictures of the wall with the writing on it.

"What the hell does _momento mori_ mean? Tony asked while taking several photos of the wall where the phrase was written in blood. "What, you missed all the Latin lectures?" Quinn asked with a smirk. Tony laughed sarcastically and snapped a photo of Quinn's face so he flinched.

"Wouldn't want to forget this moment when you finally start to loosen up" he said and then continued: "and no, some people and then I mean most people were interested in other things when they were young rather than learning a language no one speaks" Tony said with a smile.

"I didn't have time for that and my father wouldn't allow it either way, he wanted me to stay sharp. Oh, and by the way it means_ remember your mortality _if I'm not mistaking, Mr. I-partied-my-way-through-college" Quinn shot back. He expected a reaction or response from his partner but got nothing. They usually went on way too long with these little feuds against each other but it wasn't like Tony to surrender before they'd even got started.

"Why would he write that on the wall?" he asked almost robotic, ignoring the rest of what Quinn had said. That strange feeling he had had earlier started to some back and he definitely didn't like this. He told Quinn to take the video camera and start recording the scene. In the mean time, the coroner and his assistant had finished with removing the body from the chair and had laid it down on the floor, ready to transport it out of there in the body bag.

"Go get the gurney, please" the medical examiner said to the assistant who instantly made her way out of the room.

"Well, I can tell you now that it seems like the killer have some medical experience based on these sutures here on the victim's stomach, he's definitely not an amateur at this and the "X" painted in red over the stomach most definitely has a meaning. " the medical examiner stated. Tony took a note of what the medical examiner had said but was too busy ponder about this whole situation to reply. He was also aware of the killer's abilities, since there had been a couple of bodies before this one.

_"X marks the spot…"_ he whispered to himself and made his way over to Quinn who was standing by the entrance to the room, still recording the scene.

"This one feels different from the others; do you think he is up to something special, I mean what does he want?" Quinn wondered. Tony was just about to answer that when the light bulb in the ceiling and the extra lamps that had been brought in to provide extra light went out.

"Well this was spooky…" Tony said pensive.

The door suddenly shut close behind them and they all drew their guns. There were four people in the room, Tony, his partner, the coroner and a patrolling officer that had been first man on scene. Tony tried to open the door but it was locked.

"Well at least there are people outside that will soon come down here and discover that the door shut close and they will open it, so we can be on our way away from here." Tony assured the others but was concerned about what it was that had made the door close. Everything seemed too weird.

"What if those people out there aren't able to come down here and open the door, what if something happened? It's in the middle of the night so there are only like three or four policemen out there and considering the situation, that strikes as possible to me" Quinn said with a strangely calm voice.

Tony just stared at him, didn't say anything nor even flinched. It was like his mind was struggling whether to admit to himself that something was up or to keep the idea of that this was just another coincidence.

"Uhm, fellas… you should come take a look at this." the coroner said to the three men in the room who all directed the light from their flashlights straight at him. They all came closer to the coroner and the dead body and saw that the coroner was holding in a small plastic bag with an object in it that he had taken out from the victim's stomach. Tony took on a pair of gloves to inspect the finding. It was a tape recorder. After a minute of consideration, he pressed play.

_"For your own good, you should not have done that. [Pause…] The darkness is coming... I suggest you prepare yourselves. You will get what is coming for you..."_

Everyone was quiet. No one knew what to say. Tony was beginning to feel lightheaded. There was a strange smell in the air, but it was hard to make out since the whole room stank of dead guy. He tried to stand up but his body didn't allow it. A wave of coldness washed over him and it felt as if he was being dragged down to the bottom of the sea, weighed down, hands tied. There was nothing he could do. The others in the room had already passed out and it wasn't long now until he had to give in to the darkness. His head fell to the ground. In his last seconds of consciousness he could hear the door being open. It was too dark to see anything and all he could make out before everything went dark was a blurry shape of a man standing in the doorway.

* * *

_Did you like it? This is my first fic so bare with me, I'm taking baby steps in getting a hang of this... I'm trying to make it as realistic as possible but since it's usually not that realistic on tv,so I will use that trick to make it more nerve wracking. Mwahah..._

_Please review, it really helps my creative flow! :)_


	2. Chapter 2

NCIS Headquarters - present time

"Can someone please tell me why we are here this late, on a Friday night?" Tony said glaring at McGee who was sitting at Gibbs' desk. Ziva was sitting at her desk, going through a bunch of papers just like Tony was. They all knew the answer to the question Tony had just asked and simply chose to ignore it. Tony looked down at the stack of papers in front of him, which seemed to never get smaller. "Great…" he mumbled as he returned his attention to the papers continued reading, just like he had done the last couple of hours.

Tim watched as both his co-workers were going through the witness statements, which was actually the reason why they were at the office at this hour. They were investigating a bank robbery that had taken place a couple of days ago. A marine had been shot and from what they could tell it hadn't been an accident, instead he might have been an intended target. A whole bunch of witness statement had been collected and now needed to be read as soon as possible so the trail wouldn't get cold.

So far they had read half of the statements and it didn't help that Gibbs' computer had given up. Now McGee had to fix that before he could get back to the case, the problem was that he didn't find anything wrong. Gibbs had complained that it wasn't working and after hitting the screen a few times, he had told McGee to fix it and then told them he was going out for coffee. Preferably he could "fix" it before Gibbs got back from his coffee run. It was just after midnight but the man still had to have coffee. It worked fine when he restarted it and everything seemed fine and he wasn't in the mood to look any deeper. Maybe Gibbs accidentally pressed a button or forgot that he shut it off... At least that was the best explanation McGee could think of.

It was raining outside and Gibbs hadn't bothered bringing an umbrella. A little rain couldn't hurt him. He waved to the guard at the gate to the parking lot. Phil, as his name was, waved back and let Gibbs through. Gibbs parked the car and turned off the engine. He sat for a moment and stared out to the darkness outside. Something didn't feel right; it hadn't felt right for a while now. Something was wrong and he couldn't put his finger on what. It was as if he felt he was being followed but there were reasonable explanation of why he would be. He decided that it was best not to think of this anymore, if something were to come up he would simply deal with it then.

It was late and he was tired. It would probably be best for everybody to go home and get some sleep. The witness statements could wait until the morning, or at least he told himself that. But what use would he have with a team where everybody was running on empty tanks. This was the wisest decision. There was no reason for him to sit in his car and ponder any longer, not while his team was working their hardest on catching a killer. He grabbed his coffee and got out of the car

The doors to the elevator opened and he stepped in. It was dead quiet in the building. Everyone had gone home for the day, everyone except for themselves and a few security guards. He knew Ducky and Palmer had been working late these last days since they had been very busy. There had been an unusual amount of bodies down at autopsy, which was unfortunate. There was nothing to do about it now though. There was just too much death.

The elevator reached the destined floor and he got out and made his way to the bullpen. He stopped just behind Ziva's desk to see if anyone would notice his presence. None of his teammates did but and after a minute or so McGee looked up from the screen and saw Gibbs standing there drinking his coffee.

"Uhm boss… When did you get back?" Now Tony and Ziva lifted their heads.

"Just a few minutes ago. Have you found anything? He looked at Tony and Ziva.

"Nothing of importance, but we got a few matching descriptions of the perps so we'll see if there's enough to put out a BOLO." Tony said and handed Gibbs a paper of the gathered information.

"Okay, this is good for now. Go home and get some sleep, we'll continue with this the first thing in the morning"

They were all reluctant to the idea of leaving but if Gibbs told them to do something, they should probably do it. McGee hadn't found the problem on Gibbs' computer since it had been working fine ever since he sat down in front of it. He would look into it tomorrow if it caused any more problems but for now it wasn't worth the time or effort.

"We'll see you tomorrow, Boss… Uhm I mean later today…" McGee walked over to his own desk and grabbed his jacket and his bag. He checked his left pocket to make sure his car keys were still there, just like he always did before heading home. There had been too many occasions where the keys had still been in his desk drawer when he got to his car and he had learned his lesson. The problem now was that the keys weren't in his left pocket, not in any of his pockets.

"Damn it..! Where could I have put them this time?"

"You lost something, McGee?" Ziva walked over to his desk.

"Yeah my car keys, I could swear I put them in my pocket earlier"

"Hey probie, maybe you should try and in-vest-igate. Use that big probie-brain of yours and do some real detective work for once" although his intention wasn't to be rude, Tony himself felt like what he said had been a tad too harsh. He gave Tim a light smile to show that he was just kidding. McGee got the hint and although he couldn't hide the confused look on his face, he quickly turned to Ziva and changed the subject.

Tony had already gone to the elevator while McGee and Ziva were discussing possible locations of where his keys could be. He was eager to get home and didn't have time to say good night, they would see each other in a few hours anyway. He looked at his watch to see if there was any chance he would get to sleep for as many hours as he needed. It was a quarter to one now. He was glad that Gibbs had sent them home because even though he was used to working late and really pushing himself; this was not the night. He was exhausted, felt like crap and was definitely not in the mood for anything. All he wanted was to get home as fast as he could and get some sleep.

The worst of the rain had worn off and it was only drizzling when he walked over the parking lot toward his car. "Damn it, where's the keys" he mumbled to himself as he went through every pocket he had. He found his car keys in his backpack, which was not the usual place where he put his keys. He also found something that did not belong there, McGee's keys. "Oh… right" he thought and remembered why they were even there. When they had been at the crime scene, it was required by them to wear hazard suits. An unknown substance had been released inside the vault and Gibbs sent in Tony and McGee to get a look of the situation. Both Tony and McGee had emptied their pockets, since a phone, a wallet, keys and chewing gum didn't exactly come to use when wearing one of those suits. They had put everything in Tony's backpack because it had been nearby and McGee must have forgotten to take his keys.

Tony didn't feel like walking back into the building and neither waiting for him to come out. He sent a quick text to McGee telling him about the keys and that he would leave them to the guard at the gate. It would only take McGee two extra minutes or something like that to go over there and get them. Tony told Phil about the keys as he handed them over. Friendly Phil, as Tony had come to call him, was keen to keep the conversation going. Poor guy probably felt lonely. Phil began to talk and after a short moment Tony interrupted him in the middle of a sentence. "Hey, you know I just remembered I really need to get home and feed Kate. Another time Phil, although I bet McGee would love to have a chat when he gets here". "Oh right, Kate. Who is that again, your cat or something?" Phil asked a bit confused. Tony smiled, "Yeah, or something" and then he drove off. He was dead tired as he entered his apartment. He didn't bother taking his clothes off before he lied down on his bed, on top of covers and everything and he shut his eyes and exited consciousness.

Tony was awoken by the vibration of his phone. Someone was calling him. _Oh, hell… I didn't oversleep, did I? _He thought. Gibbs had told them to be back at the office at 09:30, so it seemed unlikely to him that he would have slept for that long. He still felt like he had been hit by a car. It was Gibbs who was calling him, and the time was 05:30. He had only been asleep for a few hours.

"Yeah, boss?"

"I need you to be at the office at 07:00 instead"

"Sure, eh…. No problem. Is there any particular reason? I mean, like you said, the case can wait a couple of hours" Tony would of course do as he was told but too little sleep made him a bit cranky.

"I'll tell you when you get here" Gibbs answered calmly.

"Uhu, copy that. See ya soon" Tony said and hung up.

* * *

_Please tell me what you think! The next chapter will pick up where chapter one left off!_


End file.
